balticstateswikiaorg-20200215-history
Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast (Russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, Kaliningradskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) situated on the Baltic coast. It had a population of 941,474 according to the 2010 Census preliminary results. History It was taken out of German East Prussia as punishment for Germany invading the USSR in World War II. The German population was forcibly expelled and the local Lithuanians, Poles and the few surviving Jews were cruelly repressed and considered 'politically unreliable' until the 1970s. Virtually none of the pre–World War II German Lithuanian population (Lietuvininks) or German population remains within Kaliningrad Oblast. Russians now form 82.37% of the local population and Belarusians and Ukrainians each account for about 5% of the inhabitants. The city of Kaliningrad is the province's capital and Russia's only reliably ice free port outside of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions, since other major ports like Vladivostok freeze over in the winter and others like Murmansk are in the more Polar Regions. The port of Kaliningrad a major Russian navy base is in the port to. The town was founded in 1255 but the Teutonic Knights. It was once called Königsberg by the Prussians and was part of Prussia and later Germany until 1945. It was largely destroyed during several feace battles in World War II. The ruins were occupied by the Red Army in 1945 and its reaming German and Lietuvininks population forced out at gunpoint. It was the renamed and rebuilt Kaliningrad in 1946 in honour of the Bolshevik leader Mikhail Kalinin. According to some reports from the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union had planned to make the rest of the Oblast a part of the Lithuanian SSR immediately after World War II. The area was administered by the planning committee of the Lithuanian SSR, although the area had its own Communist Party committee. The Lithuanian SSR's leadership of the Lithuanian SSR, especially Antanas Sniečkus, refused to take over the administration of territory, mainly because of its heavy devastation during the war. Some modern nationalistic Lithuanian authors say that the reason for the refusal was the Lithuanians' concern to find themselves on equal ethnic-demographic terms with the Russian population within the Lithuanian SSR. The Kaliningrad Nuclear Power Plant (also referred as Baltic Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) or Baltiiskaya NPP, Russian: Калининградская атомная электростанция; Калининградская АЭС or Балтийская АЭС) is a nuclear power plant under construction 13 kilometres south-east of the town of Neman. A older, Chernobyl type one in the rural hinterland is slated for closure, while a newer one will continue working. The new reactor is seen as a counter-project to the plan to build the Visaginas nuclear power plant in Lithuania and is considered as both energy and a geopolitical project. There is the small Kaliningrad Devau Airport at Kaliningrad for general aviation and Khrabrovo Airport 24km north at located near Khrabrovo. Kaliningrad is also home to Kaliningrad Chkalovsk naval air base. Politics 'Results of the regional elections of -' The 2011 Oblast council results were- United Russia 42.6%, Communist Party of the Russian Federation 22.3%, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 13.1%, other parties, A Just Russia 10.5% and the rest. Ballot fixing reportedly did not happen in the oblast unlike in Moscow, Omsk and Novosibirsk, which were rumored to be corrupted. The 13 March, 2011 local Duma poll had 42% of the voters partake in it, with 4.22% of votes invalid. 'Results of the presidential elections of -' The 2012 presidential ballot voting started in the Kaliningrad region at 09:00 Moscow time (05:00 GMT) on 04/03/2012, an hour after polling stations opened in Moscow, St. Petersburg and another 50 regions in the European part of Russia and nine hours after polls opened in the remote eastern regions of Chukotka, Kolyma and the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's Far East. The 5 presidential candidates are candidates are Vladimir Putin, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky, A Just Russia Party leader Sergei Mironov and the only independent, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. Vladimir Putin won confitabuly with the Communists coming a reasonable second, and the Just Russia Party close behind according to early results.There were some minor scuffles and a few minor claimed of fraud, but not as much as was witnessed in Moscow, or alleged in St. Petersburg, Ryzan or Novasibrisk. Future of the Oblast There has been suggestions that the Kaliningrad secede from Russia and stands independent, and being the fourth Baltic state. However, it was simply a minority idea and the independence or joining Germany is still left as an unanswered question. Also see *Old Prussia *Chernyakhovsky *Soviet Union *East Prussia *Memel Territory *Lithuania Minor *Baltic Area in km2 list *Klaipėda district municipality *Lietuvininks *Klaipėda County *Kursenieki *World War II *Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University *Bagrationovsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast *Chekhovo, Kaliningrad Oblast *Yuzhnyy Airport, Kaliningrad *University of Königsberg Category:Russia Category:Soviet Union Category:Countries